A police officer working out of the Juvenile Unit of the Euclid Police Department, spends four of his eight hour shift in the High School. He is there at the High School with an office and is readily accessible to students, administration and teachers alike. He works closely with the school to ferret out any problems before they occur. He is there to be a school resource officerto look at
things from a law enforcement perspective. He is also available and useful as a
role model to the children of the high school. He has made valuable inroads in
rapport with the students. Many students often come to him and confide in him on
important issues. They also become a source of intelligence information in order
for us to be proactive in preventing violence.

The second part of this structure
involves the school system. They have hired a security force of security
officers and put in place monitoring systems throughout the high school. They
also have magnetometers which are portable and can be moved any new location to
monitor contraband being brought into the high school.

2. When was the program created and
why?

The Officer Liaison Program was started in 1990. Before this time the communications with the school system were somewhat deficient. This program was started as a way to share information, collect intelligence information and to have a resource for the schools. Another reason why the program got started was because of the new cooperative nature of the school system itself and the
desire to be closer knit with the community and its Police Department. Initially
there were some apprehensions about having a police officer in the high school.
These apprehensions were quickly diminished as the officer became a cultural
part of daily life at the high school.

The school security program began
approximately in 1994 and has grown in its ability. It started because the
school wished to be proactive in its approach to possible school violence. I can
honestly say there was no incident or specific problem that caused the school to
feel the need for this security measure. The school did not wish to be a
statistic in the growing problems of school violence and took this proactive
step.

3. How do you measure the program's
effectiveness?

The first measure of the program's
effectiveness was the increase in the amount of complaints and reports generated
from the high school, In the past the high school handled all their problems
"in-house" and there was no monitoring of situations in the high school by the
Police Department. Often time the Police Department was completely ignored while
the school faced difficult situations outside the criminal justice system. So
you might say that the statistics increased rapidly with our intervention.
However, this was no measure of the increase in problems, rather it was a
measure of the lack of reported situations in the high school.

Having this new measurement we were able
to see a decrease in the problems at our high school because now incidents were
being reported. We also know that this particular measure thwarted a possible
monumental violent situation. Intelligence information gathered from the Liaison
Officer at the high school discovered that a student was planning to buy a
firearm. A sting operation was created in which that student was arrested. This
was the most violent situation reported over the years of the program and we can
document the success of the Officer Liaison due to this intelligence
information.

4. How is the program
financed?

The Officer Liaison is paid for by the
Euclid Police Department and the City of Euclid. The officer's salary is totally
paid from General Fund money (operating funds) as part of his regular salary. He
only works four hours of his eight-hour shift at the high school during the nine
months that the high school is in session. In the summer months when high school
is not in session the Officer Liaison works in the neighborhoods to join our
Youth Task Force whose job it is to get to know the kids and provide the kids
with resources on the streets.

The school system funds the security
officers and the monitoring through their own General Fund.

5. How is the community involved in the
program, if at all? How has the community responded to the
program?

The community is involved with the
program because the high school teachers,

administration and students are a part
of our community. As a matter of fact the high school is a microcosm of the city
itself. We do not, however, have the community involved in supporting the
program. I don't believe the general populous understands or knows that there is
an Officer Liaison Program, although most of the city realizes there is security
in the schools.

The school community has responded to
the program extremely well. The community outside the school is unaware of the
Officer Liaison Program but wholeheartedly supports security measures presented
by the high school, There are some naysayers who do not wish to see security in
high schools but overall the majority opinion is that the Euclid school system
is being proactive in dealing with possible school violence.

We have not made an effort to involve
the community in supporting the Officer Liaison Program. Perhaps we could gather
funds from the private sector to help support and finance the program. The
schools are attempting to pass a levy to help them in their operating budgets.
Unfortunately, they have been unsuccessful and my fear is that the security
measures may dwindle.

6. Contact person:

The contact person for the Euclid Police
Department is Det. Alan Bush of the Juvenile Unit. His address is 545 East 222nd
Street, Euclid, OH 44123 and his phone number is (216) 2898419. His FAX number
is (216) 289-8543. The contact person at the high school is Mr. Dennis Kehn and
his phone number is (216) 261-2900, Ext. 2417. His address is 710 E. 222nd
Street, Euclid, OH 44123. Mr, Kehn is the Director of Security for the Euclid
High School.